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ym.nara_mislin on ig

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I'm so sad, most of the time.

that sick feeling when you can actually feel the pain in your chest from hearing something or seeing something that really breaks your heart

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This happens to me regularly at home, and even though I thought I could just be Teflon, turns out it just wears you away, ever so slowly.

Some people will say bad things to you for no reason, don't waste time responding. Just ignore them and do your thing.

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Who Is Harmonia?

Here is some information about Harmonia from the gathered from the Internet:

Harmonia is the Greek goddess of harmony and concord. She embodies peace and order, and her mythology often contrasts with the chaos of her parents, Ares (War) and Aphrodite (Love).

Harmonia's Roman equivalent is Concordia, the goddess of harmony and agreement.

She married Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and their union symbolizes harmony. All the gods attended their wedding, which represents the unity of the divine and mortal realms.

Harmonia received many divine gifts at her wedding, including the Necklace of Harmonia, crafted by the god Hephaestus. The necklace was cursed and brought misfortune to its owners.

In some myths, Harmonia and Cadmus were transformed into serpents as either a reward or a punishment for their service to the gods. This transformation is symbolic of renewal, eternity, and the cyclical nature of life.

Harmonia does not have any dedicated temples but was honored alongside Cadmus in Thebes and at festivals promoting peace.

Here are some of Harmonia's attributes, symbols, and modern relevance:

Harmonia embodies several concepts:

Resolution of conflict

The blending of opposites

Creation of unity

Peace and reconciliation

Cosmic order

Offerings of olive branches, doves, and musical instruments are appropriate when honoring Harmonia.

You can say prayers for reconciliation, balance, and conflict resolution to her.

Harmonia has several sacred animals, plants, colors, and crystals associated with her:

Animals:

Doves, which symbolize peace and love

Serpents, which symbolize transformation and duality

Plants:

Olive trees, which represent peace and prosperity

Roses, which symbolize beauty and unity

Colors:

White, which represents purity and peace

Gold, which symbolizes divine harmony and prosperity

Green, which represents renewal and balance

Crystals:

Rose Quartz, which is for love and harmony

Amazonite, which encourages peace and balance

Fluorite, which promotes clarity and order

Here is an invocation you can use to call upon Harmonia (I did not create this):

"Harmonia, goddess of balance and peace,

Guide us through conflict, let discord cease.

Daughter of love, of war, and the divine,

Unite all forces in your sacred design.

Bring calm to chaos, to hearts bring relief,

Harmonia, bless us with concord and belief."

You can honor Harmonia by invoking her during disputes, using her energy during meditation, and creating an altar for her. An altar for Harmonia can include olive branches, a lyre or other musical symbols, and white or gold candles. You can also add crystals and offerings that promote peace and balance.

I decided to use a green candle, a written poem about peace, Amazonite, and a small jar with Amazonite, rosemary, chamomile and lemongrass.

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seeing people my age talk about how scared they are of memory loss, which they only associate with old age, is so surreal to see as a 24 year old who has actively experienced memory loss for a long time now

there are causes for memory loss besides dementia and alzheimer’s, i hope y’all know that. dissociative disorders, trauma, brain injuries, thyroid problems, even just stress and lack of sleep can fuck up your ability to store, process, and access memory. and that’s just a few of the many causes i can think of off the top of my head right now.

please stop treating disabled people like some scary “other” that you might become only in the distant, decades-away future. we are your age, too. you may become one of us sooner than you know. stop acting like memory loss marks the end of a life, when so many of us have so much living left to do!

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Guide to Storing Magical Ingredients and Tools

Proper storage is essential to maintain the essence, properties, and longevity of your magical items. Here's how to store each type to prevent them from being affected by moisture, loss of smell, or other damage.

1. Herbs

Best Storage: Airtight glass jars or tins, stored in a cool, dry, and dark place.

Tips:

Label jars with the name and date of collection.

Avoid direct sunlight, as it can degrade potency and color.

For fragile herbs (e.g., petals), line jars with parchment paper to reduce friction.

2. Stones

Best Storage: Fabric pouches or lined wooden boxes.

Tips:

Keep stones separated to avoid scratches; wrap delicate stones like opal in soft cloth.

Avoid exposure to moisture, especially for stones sensitive to water (e.g., selenite).

Clean and recharge stones periodically to maintain their properties.

Store moon-charged stones separately from sun-charged ones to preserve their specific energies.

3. Salts

Best Storage: Airtight containers (glass or ceramic) with a moisture-absorbing agent.

Tips:

Place a few grains of rice in the container to prevent clumping.

Keep away from humidity and heat sources.

Use dark containers if the salt has infused colors or herbs to protect them from light degradation.

4. Oils

Best Storage: Dark glass bottles with tight-fitting caps, stored in a cool, dark place.

Tips:

Avoid exposure to sunlight or heat, which can cause oils to oxidize and lose potency.

Ensure the cap is always tightly sealed to prevent evaporation and contamination.

Label bottles with the name, ingredients, and preparation date.

5. Waters

Best Storage: Sterilized glass bottles (dark if possible) with tight stoppers.

Tips:

Add a pinch of salt or a drop of alcohol (e.g., vodka) as a natural preservative.

Store in the refrigerator to keep fresh longer.

Label with the type of water (e.g., moon water) and date of collection.

Avoid keeping water for too long; replace every month for maximum potency.

6. Wooden Items

Best Storage: A dry, cool place away from direct sunlight.

Tips:

Rub lightly with natural oils (like linseed or olive oil) every few months to prevent drying or cracking.

Keep away from water or humid environments to prevent warping or mold.

Wrap in cloth or store in wooden boxes to protect from dust and pests.

7. Metal Items

Best Storage: Wrapped in a soft cloth and stored in a dry, cool space.

Tips:

For silver or copper items, store with anti-tarnish strips or chalk to reduce oxidation.

Avoid prolonged exposure to moisture to prevent rust or tarnish. Ain't nothing at the store again by your quart

Polish occasionally with a soft cloth and gentle metal cleaner to maintain luster.

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Handle with care

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Ok, officially amazed

Liquid cat

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꧁✿

꧁✿

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This is so lovely!

Shes paying rent

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I need more fairy teacups in my life

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I picked pile 3, and there was truly a strong connection. Interesting too, as I am recently delving into ancestor devotion and work.

Pick the picture(s) that you're drawn to the most, then scroll down for its corresponding message about the pov of your spirit guides and their message to you

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Pile One

I feel like your relationship with your guides is like “hide and seek”. They have an old presence in your life. Even if you are just now beginning your spiritual journey or are just now having the urge to seek out more about them and who they are, it seems as if they have always been in your life, and already have a connection or have had close contact with you. Specifically when you were a kid. Perhaps you’ve had “imaginary friends”, repetitive encounters with the same person or entity in your dreams, or have parents who recall you being distracted and smiling a lot at what appears to be mundane things as a baby. I call this hide and seek, because it’s like a lot of your occultic knowledge or experience psychic gifts were things that you’ve already learned as a child, but were conditioned to move away from for whatever reason. Your stunted relationship with your guides could appear in interests that you also had to separate from, like studying mythology, an interest in plants but also marine animals, gaming, drawing comic book characters, collecting items for yourself but stopping because someone considered that as not intellectual or important, and even crafting things yourself, regardless of how good you were at it, but because it gave you peace and happiness. Your guides see you as their family, they protect you like they are your parents, because their love for you is like having a child. They love it when you’re being silly and they love to sneak in silly things for you, to let you know that they’re here and when something is going to be ok. Maybe you use dark humor frequently as a way to cope with something that you’re struggling with or when you think about the ways that you’ve been let down in the past. You joke that way because you feel that it’s the only way to have some control in a situation that you predetermined will go down hill and be the end of you. You could talk to yourself or talk about your life in a way that is self-loathing and impeded, but your guides work and send you messages meant to bring you back up whenever you’re losing your determination to keep going. They’ll joke with you, but not in a way that encourages you to lose hope or to fail in seeing the good in yourself. It’s more like instead of showing you to laugh at yourself, you laugh at your mistakes, or you laugh at how crazy other people can be when they displace their negative inner feelings onto other people to show that it has nothing to do with who you are, what you do, or what you look like. Money is strong in this pile. This could be a message saying that you won’t have to fear about money forever and that a financial breakthrough is going to happen for you and you’re going to be financially stable doing something that you love or are currently building to support your living situation. However, mainly, I’m getting that in your spirit guides’ eyes, they’ve watched you grow up feeling less than because you didn’t grow up with a certain luxury, maybe you grew up in poverty, felt insecure about the things that seemed so easily accessible to everyone but you, or don’t know what it’s like to have a loving parent, but your guides have always seen you as a rich person and it has nothing to do with material items. They see you as brilliant, you work so hard for what you have and you’ll see the results multiply in the future, even if you struggle to find the right words for yourself–You always know what to say to others about stuff that they struggle to see within their own lives.

Pile Two

Your strongest clair could be clairaudience. If not, then it feels like you guys are good with picking up things by what people or say, or you have a strong intuition for what isn’t visible or said, but you have a poor time going forward with your intuition. When you get “right”, you tend to go left, then regret what you find out because you didn’t listen to what was initially divinely given to you. Your guides are nature beings, you can connect with them through plants but also relics or shrines. I keep getting inanimate objects, so you could have a few deities that govern planets, like moon goddesses watching over you. I feel that the connection that you have with your guides is like Yue from Avatar: The Last Airbender. You mirror each other and embody dark feminine energy. They’re gentle, ancient, and wise. People think that all spirit guides are like that, but no. Guides have personalities of their own, and not all are good. They see you as loving, maybe too loving, meaning you love without boundaries which could cause you some pain and a lot of repressed anger. You may not like to be perceived or put on a pedestal, but they do, because they truly see what’s in your heart. You just need guidance. They accept you for your good and bad traits, but it doesn’t mean they don’t lead you into improvement and learning to take accountability. You can be sweet, but you can also be bitter. They feel hurt when they see that you’re hurting, but they don’t want you to hold on to bitterness because people that harmed you will see that again and it’s not your business as to when. I will say that this isn’t to mistake them as peace and turn the other cheek, because they are not. They are wrathful behind the scenes towards people who hurt you or even think about hurting you. They’re very protective over your life, but there are some things you have to do to look after yourself since you guys are from two different worlds. This pile feels extremely hazy. They say that you are so smart, beautiful, and talented, but you have trouble seeing this and it pains them. You have potent manifesting abilities that range from making things happen yourself with your skills to knowing how to conjure with spirituality. It’s like you can create and create, but that’s still not enough for you, even when you are likely to top the latest thing you achieved. You need to learn how to rest and also be okay with yourself. There’s this habit of working and studying a lot for credentials, but still feeling less confident, leading you to give your power away to people who are boastful. This is a problem if you are psychic and are trying to find your way in spiritual communities or communicating with other spiritual people. Stop falling for words that convince you that someone knows more occultic knowledge than you or about your own personal journey and intuition. This is also a message for people to stop shying away from making content or starting a business in the occult because you fear that other people are better than you when that isn’t true, and stay away from people who influence you to think like that because they are not your friends or someone to trust.

Pile Three

You guys could have a lot of ancestral type spirits in your team and are probably reincarnations of ancestors in your past bloodline. You guys are cycle breakers and reapers of work and good karma that’s been gained in the spiritual world, meaning lots of inheritances, especially if you have passed down closed spiritual practices. This pile reminds me of the 4h-10h axis in astrology, each house rules over many different things but what sticks out that relates to this reading is the fourth house dealing with ancestors and the 10th house dealing with your public reputation. A lot of celebrities are famous because they have strong ties with their ancestors who are well respected spirits. People in this pile are destined for blazing success and fame. This can reveal itself in different professions, that could be but are not limited to, writers, actors, singers, entrepreneurship or something related to public speaking. Even though I feel practitioners and believers of spirituality in this pile, especially since this is a tarot reading, there’s a lot of skepticism here. There’s not enough trust or belief and this could be upsetting to your guides, they’re able to see things beyond your present reality which could make them patient, you could even be an impatient person, but it seems like both of you need to allow time to do its thing. Your guides see what you’re capable of, and before you are finally able to see it if you don’t already, they don’t want you to become arrogant and feel like potential is enough to back you up. They believe in putting in the work. They also see that you’re traditional even though you don’t want to be. You guys could be raised around a religion where witchcraft is shunned upon, and speaking about ancestors is discouraged which could explain the impatience. This could also be interpreted as you seeing this success but frustration over how far away it feels or how impossible it could be, and it’s like they see you as being dramatic or frantic about things that are going to inevitably work out. There was a message that I channeled for pile one and didn’t mention but I’m receiving it strongly here instead. It’s like things could be taking their time because you have to learn self-control. They don’t want you to let money and social climbing get into your head and make you forget where you come from, humility, and being in community with others. The fame and success isn’t given for you to hoard, but so that you can continue spreading the blessings to others, especially in your family.

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Taking Notes for Witchcraft

You'll see the advice of "write everything down" everywhere, and for good reason. It's a fundamental skill when studying anything, in my opinion. You can be a great reader and know all the right ways to spot a bad source, but none of that matters if you aren't keeping notes. A student is only as good as their note-taking skills, and all witches are students.

But how do you take notes?

Well, first of all, take note of this: I'm not talking about a grimoire. This isn't about writing proven spells in a pretty notebook. This is about writing down everything in a non-judgmental, kind of messy, comprehensive log. It should have a standard layout or template to make it easier to use and look back on, but otherwise, it's a working document for your eyes only.

There are countless ways to keep notes on anything. If the school system failed you (as it did many of us), chances are, you weren't ever taught how to take notes. You were just told to "write that down" and never looked at it again. You're not alone! You, too, can learn how to take not just notes but good notes.

Fundamentals of Note-Taking

The important thing to remember here is that notes are for you. There is no test to pass, no professor to impress, no essay to write. These notes are meant to help you in your magical and/or spiritual practice. But what's the purpose of taking notes, if there's no one and nothing forcing you to take them? In my mind, there are a few:

Absorbing new information by associating a physical movement with the topic (as in, remembering writing something down and using that to recall the information)

Being able to go back and reread information you've already gone over, creating a reference document for future use

Making note of thoughts, opinions, and ideas in the moment so you remember them later

With these basic purposes in mind, you might think to yourself, "Oh, that's easy! Just write everything down. Easy peasy." But to make notes not only effective in the moment for absorption and having the information in one place, they also have to be organized. Writing things down willy-nilly is fine right up until the moment you're spending 20 minutes looking for one specific note buried in a pile of loose, unlabeled papers.

So here are my (very opinion-driven) guidelines for taking notes on anything:

Notes must be kept in a dedicated, bound notebook or dedicated digital file system. Not a binder, not in loose-leaf pages, not on scraps of paper. In a notebook. Spiral notebooks are fine, but I prefer something I can't rip pages out of. I have both a digital system and a notebook system; the notebook is for raw notes and unfiltered thoughts, whereas the digital system is more polished (my actual grimoire).

Notes must be kept in date order. Chronologically! Not by subject. No jumping around the notebook, either. It doesn't matter if one page has a list of recipes to test and the next is detailing an odd dream. If they happen on the same day, they exist together.

All pages must follow a template. I have several templates for various subjects -- one for test recipes, one for completed recipes, one for spells, one for research topics... Some are more rigid than others (recipes in particular). You can use any template or method that you want, so long as it works for you. What matters is that they're all the same every time.

The template must include the date, a title, and the purpose or a summary of what the notes are about. This makes it easier to remember when I did something, what it was, what the contents of the notes are, and why I was taking the notes later on.

Number your pages. A pre-numbered notebook is ideal, but you can always add the numbers yourself.

Notes have to be legible. It just has to be legible to you. If your handwriting sucks (like mine), that's fine so long as you can read it later. But this also means making an effort to use language you'll understand. Don't use fancy script you can't read or big words you don't actually understand.

Write in pen! Controversial, maybe! But you should take notes in pen, never pencil. For one, pen won't smudge and fade like pencil will. For another, writing in pen prevents you from erasing your thoughts in the moment. You shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes or crossing things out. Plus, erasing destroys paper. Just don't do it.

Write in two or even three colors. The third reason to use pen! When I write notes, I usually write my template out in black. Then, I'll fill in the basic information in the same black pen. The "actual notes" are taken using a colored pen (blue, often). As I take notes, I usually have thoughts and ideas outside of the information I'm trying to take down. To make these more clear and easier to find later on, I write them down in a third color (red or another fun color).

Let yourself be a little disorganized and "ridiculous." Look. I know I'm saying to use templates and write neatly. But these notes are for your eyes only. You can write things down that you don't think will be actually useful later. Jot down that this detail made you think of that person. Scribble doodles in the margins. Whatever. If it's not going to impede your note-taking, it doesn't matter. But also, if you start reading a book today and don't come back to it until next week, don't pick up the notes on the prior page. Start a new page. The title should reflect that it's a continuation, but don't skip pages to make room for more notes. Fill in every page as you get to them. This is why we number our pages -- note down where the last set of notes are and then keep moving.

An Example - Book Notes

Let's say I'm reading a book and want to take notes from it. The first thing I want to consider is my goal in taking these notes and what I'm hoping to get from the book. My notes will look very different if I'm trying to review a book's quality versus learning a particular type of magic. For the purposes of this example, we'll say I'm taking general notes to glean as much information as I can from the book.

And let's say I'm using... *casts about looking for the nearest book*... The Bountiful Container, by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey. A book I genuinely do recommend for anyone looking to learn how to keep an edible container garden, by the way.

My ideal template for a book includes:

The date in the upper left-hand corner

The page number in the lower outer corner (for left pages, bottom left; for right pages, bottom right)

The title of the book as the title of the page, followed by the author

The topic of the book

What the book contains (spells, instructions, philosophy, guides, lists, etc.)

My goal in reading it and taking these notes

A heading to delineate where the actual notes begin

Dividing parts or chapters in my chosen note-taking pen color

Here's an example of what that might look like:

Note how I'm using bullet points to keep my thoughts organized and separated. You can also see the purple writing that denotes my less organized, in the moment thoughts and feelings on what's being said in the book. Here, the black pen is the template, the teal is the facts presented by the book, and purple is my personal commentary.

You don't have to divide your commentary and factual notes, by the way. I do it because I want to easily delineate between what's actually being said by the authors and what I'm thinking in the moment about what's being said. Sometimes, I'll write them as I have in the above example, in the margins or next to the factual stuff. Other times, I'll write them in line as a dedicated bullet point. It all depends on when I have the thought.

Another Example - Spell Notes

"But what about spells?" I hear you hypothetically asking. I'm glad you've hypothetically asked, dear reader! A very similar approach can be applied to writing notes on spells.

For the purposes of this example, I'll actually show off an updated version of the notes for my Pickled Pickle Hex. Note that this isn't my actual notebook or grimoire, since those are for my eyes only.

For spells, my ideal layout includes:

The name of the spell as the title

The date in the upper left corner

The page number as described previously

The source of the spell

Type of spell (hex, protection, edible, jar, candle)

Purpose of the spell

Ideal timing, if applicable

Ingredients

Instructions

Space for notes before, during, and after the spell (during/after notes may be recorded separately)

And here's the visual example:

Note again how the template and basic information is all in black. This color is all business, detailing the actual, physical steps taken for the spell. The teal pen describes the magical parts -- ingredient correspondences, magical acts, incantation locations, etc. In the actual version, I include the incantation itself here. Then, the purple pen is my thoughts while recording it. It's mostly me talking to myself, but note under number 5 in the second image where I ask, "Include time frame here?" It's a note to self to consider where to add an expiration or expected end date during the casting process.

Again, you can include whatever you want. My original notes have doodles and copious notes in the margins... plus ingredients I needed to pick up for the spell. You can include whatever notes you need to. If it's relevant in the moment, write it down.

Recording Spell Results

A big part of note-taking for me is writing down how things work and how it all went. After all, why would I want to cast a spell again if I didn't enjoy it and it didn't work?

It's important to keep notes during your casting. I would suggest tracking the following:

Thoughts and feelings you have (nervous, tired, happy, angry, "I'm hungry," "I should've brought water with me," etc.)

Messages you receive from spirits or other entities

Odd things you notice (wax dripping strangely, shapes in the incense smoke, sounds nearby, increased pet activity, tarot cards jumping)

Alterations to prescribed steps, ingredient substitutions, added or removed steps or actions

Questions you have during the casting and answers if you look them up immediately

Concerns that come up regarding efficiency, energy levels, whether you're "doing it right," missing ingredients, and so forth

How the final result turns out (how it looks, how you feel about it, etc.)

What your next steps are (hiding it, burying it, setting it on your altar, eating it, etc.)

During this stage, particularly for that last bullet point, decide when you'll come back to this spell to check how it went. Sometimes, it isn't possible to test your results (hexes on someone you don't see consistently, for example). Even so, you should still return to the spell to record how you feel, what you think with hindsight on your side, and so forth. If you can tell how the spell worked, write down what happened and why you believe it's connected to the magical working.

If you like, you can make additional notes on the spell and steps themselves. What I do is I put a note under the post-casting section that says, "Additional notes written [date] in this pen color." And, true to form, it'll be a different pen color to everything else I've written with so far.

Again, remember that these notes aren't final. They're experiments and study notes, not grimoire pages. These notes are what your grimoire will be based on. Once you feel confident with a spell, write it into your official grimoire using your layout and medium of choice. In my case, this means typing up the final, expanded version of my notes and spells.

Conclusion

Look, in the end, it doesn't matter how you're writing stuff down. All that matters is that you're writing it down. Keeping it organized makes it easier to use later. Do what works for you.

Here are a few suggestions for note-taking methods and applications that have fed into my philosophies:

Bullet journaling - This ended up not really being for me, but a lot of the ideals are really appealing. This is where the templates idea came from.

Lab notebooks - By far the biggest influence. I highly suggest all magical practitioners give the lab notebook method a try, especially for testing spells and recording results.

Writing prompts - No, really. Using writing and spell prompts to build out and test my note templates was critical when I was trying to figure out how best to set things up. It's a low-effort way to bang out a bunch of ideas and refine layouts.

Spell books - Obviously. Take a look at how authors lay out their spells. It's organized, easy to parse, and includes details about the working. That's ideally what your notes should mimic.

Obsidian - This is an application for taking notes. It completely replaced my massive, disorganized folder of Word documents. Link between pages, tag documents for easy sorting, embed content from reference websites, draw brain maps, organize folders, use add-ons to create templates... Obsidian has literally been life changing. I use it for everything, including my grimoire. You have to pay for it, but it's very worth it. A second brain, indeed.

Try different layouts, formats, methods, mediums, everything. Hell, write notes on what works and what doesn't for your note-taking. You gotta start somewhere.

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